Soccer: West Ham to introduce new fan voting platform

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LONDON (Reuters) - Premier League club West Ham United will introduce a new fan engagement platform allowing supporters to buy the right to vote on selected club decisions, following the example of French club Paris Saint Germain and Juventus of Italy.

Socios.com, a blockchain-based fan engagement platform, allows supporters to buy fan ‘tokens’ or to earn or ‘hunt’ them through games, in order to take part in club polls.

The club chooses the kind of polls it wishes to run but it is imagined they could include decisions on ‘third kit’ designs and other fan experience issues and not management or personnel decisions.

The fan tokens will also give supporters access to rewards, exclusive merchandise, games and competitions.

“We recognise that many fans are now digital users first, with many looking at and using new technologies in their day-to- day lives,” said Karim Virani, West Ham’s Digital and Commercial Director.

“Socios.com’s state-of-the-art platform will further give us the ability to interact and get direct feedback in real-time from our global fanbase which will be important to our future fan engagement strategy.”

The tokens are able to be traded within the system which operates via a mobile phone app.

Socios.com CEO Alexander Dreyfus said the company expects to announce more European and Premier League partner clubs in the near future.